acquire the real mastery of the British Channel—­gloriously send forth fleets that went and conquered, and never sullied the union flag by an act of dishonour or dissimulation.  Not a single Briton, during the protectorate, but could demand and receive either reparation or revenge for injury, whether it came from France, from Spain, from any open foe or treacherous ally; not an oppressed foreigner claimed his protection but it was immediately and effectually granted.  Were things to be compared to this in the reign of either Charles?  England may blush at the remembrance of the insults she sustained during the reigns of the first most amiable, yet most weak—­of the second most admired, yet most contemptible—­of these legal kings.  What must she think of the treatment of the elector palatine, though he was son-in-law to king James?  And let her ask herself how the Duke of Rohan was assisted in the Protestant war at Rochelle, notwithstanding the solemn engagement of king Charles under his own hand!  But we are treading too fearlessly upon ground on which, in our humble capacity, we have scarcely the right to enter.  Alas! alas! the page of history is but a sad one; and the Stuarts and the Cromwells, the roundheads and the cavaliers, the pennons and the drums, are but part and parcel of the same dust—­the dust we, who are made of dust animated for a time by a living spirit, now tread upon!  Their words, that wrestled with the winds and mounted on the air, have left no trace along that air whereon they sported:—­the clouds in all their beauty cap our isle with their magnificence, as in those by-gone days; the rivers are as blue, the seas as salt; the flowers, those sweet things! remain fresh within our fields, as when God called them into existence in Paradise, and are bright as ever.  But the change is over us, as it has been over them:  we, too, are passing.  O England! what should this teach?  Even three things—­wisdom, justice, and mercy.  Wisdom to watch ourselves, and then our rulers, so that we neither do nor suffer wrong; justice to the memory of the mighty dead, whether born to thrones or footstools; mercy, inasmuch as we shall deeply need it from our successors.

* * * * *

THE “WHY AND BECAUSE” OF CHRISTMAS.

[We can vouch for the abridgement and collation of the following facts, connected with this joyous season of old.  Probably a few of the notes may have been discussed in the course of our twenty-volume career; but to omit such notices on the present occasion, would be to drop a link in the little chain:]

Why is the evening before Christmas-day celebrated?

Because Christmas-day, in the primitive Church, was always observed as the Sabbath-day, and, like it, preceded by an eve, or vigil.—­Brand.

It was once believed, that if we were to go into a cow-house, at twelve o’clock at night, all the cattle would be found kneeling.  Many also firmly believed that bees sung in their hives on Christmas-eve, to welcome the approaching day.